News museum opens in Washington

Sunday

Apr 27, 2008 at 12:01 AMApr 27, 2008 at 7:20 AM

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Pope visited Washington, D.C., just a few days after the official opening of the Newseum, a brand-new museum dedicated to the history of the news media. But quicker than the pontiff could wave goodbye to his throngs of admirers, the museum had installed an exhibit, text and all, of the historic visit.

BY SUEVON LEESTAR-BANNER

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Pope visited Washington, D.C., just a few days after the official opening of the Newseum, a brand-new museum dedicated to the history of the news media.
But quicker than the pontiff could wave goodbye to his throngs of admirers, the museum had installed an exhibit, text and all, of the historic visit.
"We're used to doing things on deadline. We're able to turn around the museum a lot quicker than your usual museum," said Newseum Deputy Director Susan Bennett.
That, in essence, sums up one of the goals of this interactive, up-to-the-minute exhibit space, which strives to capture the ever-changing face of the news within its dazzling glass-and-steel enclosure.
Standing seven stories high and occupying a whopping 250,000 square feet of exhibit space, the Newseum - just steps from the National Mall - replaces the far smaller version once housed in Rosslyn, Va., that shuttered its doors in 2002.
The new, $450 million structure - among the most expensive museums ever built - is a shrine to media past, present and future and features interactive exhibits, photographic galleries and a massive collection of news artifacts.
Funded by the nonprofit Freedom Forum and contributions from major media organizations, the museum drew more than 20,000 visitors during its mid-April opening weekend.
"The museum was built for news consumers and potential news consumers. We want to encourage a new generation of readers and viewers," Bennett said.
The museum's impressive design could succeed in attracting more than just news junkies. Its glass facade features a 74-foot-high marble engraving of the First Amendment. An enormous, high-definition media screen greets visitors in the museum's 90-foot-high atrium-lobby, with an actual news helicopter (minus the engine) suspended overhead.
Huge glass elevators whisk visitors up to the sixth floor, where they can soak in breathtaking panoramic views of Pennsylvania Avenue, the U.S. Capitol, the National Gallery of Art and Washington's low-hovering skyline. On a sunny, cloudless day, it's tempting to linger out on the terrace, watching the traffic pass below.
But more news awaits inside, available from a constantly updated gallery of daily front pages from 80 newspapers around the world.
During one weekday afternoon, less than a week after its official opening, the Newseum was scattered with school groups, parents with strollers and the occasional television journalist or two strolling across the Five Freedoms Walkway, a path that connects one end of the museum to the other.
With 14 major galleries, 15 theaters, two state-of-the-art television studios and a countless number of interactive games, admission to the Newseum comes at a steep price: $20 for adults, which Cathy Trost, director of exhibit development, points out is about the same price as a ticket to a baseball game.
Working one's way through the massive space can work up quite an appetite. Fortunately, the Newseum features a cafeteria on its ground floor, named "The Food Section," which offers sandwiches, salads and an assortment of desserts from Wolfgang Puck Catering.
Although the Newseum places a heavy emphasis on the new and the interactive, exhibits centered on artifacts associated with some of the most significant events in U.S. and world history command special attention.
An eight-slab section of the graffiti-scrawled Berlin Wall is on display, as is the uppermost section of the antenna mast from the World Trade Center North Tower in the museum's sobering 9/11 Gallery.
In the World News Gallery, visitors can learn of the perils associated with foreign correspondence as they view the armored truck used to protect Time Magazine photographers in Yugoslavia or the laptop computer used by Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan before he was killed.
Plenty of actual news footage and documentary video accompany such exhibits, so parents should be cautioned that some material may be intense for young viewers.
The News History Gallery traces the history of newsgathering over 500 years and serves as a good refresher course for some of the major news events of the 20th century. Display cases hold everything from a blogger's house slippers to the early edition of the Orlando Sentinel that prematurely announced that George W. Bush had won the state of Florida in 2000, when in fact the final count total made it too close to call at the time.
"It's pretty cool; I like all the facts and history," Becca Hine, 10, of Wethersfield, Conn., said as she played one of the interactive quizzes in the gallery.
Other visitors may be wowed by the nearby Big Screen Theater, which plays historic news footage in a continuous loop, or the 4-D film, which takes audiences on a historic - and literally bumpy - ride through time.
For an extra $8, kids (and adults, too) can Be a TV Reporter, recording a fake stand-up against a famous backdrop, which they are later able to download.
Trish Copenhaver, originally from Fort Meyers, said she decided to bring her 7-year-old twins, Zach and Dylan, to the Newseum on a parent-teacher school holiday.
"I thought the kids would love it. It's very interactive," she said, as they toured the First Amendment Gallery.
Not everyone, though, is convinced that what the museum has to offer is worth the price of admission. Maryann Gruffida of Middletown, Conn., seemed plain bewildered by all the room around her as she walked down one hallway with her husband to the next exhibit.
"I'm not too impressed," Gruffida, 70, said. "It's too much space. It's not really set up well. The interactivity is nothing but push a button and play a game. You could do that at home."
Paul Sughrue, however, had a different experience. In town for the Pope's visit, the 64-year-old pastor from Boston said he definitely got his $20 worth. Emerging from the Pulitzer Prize Photographs Gallery, the self-proclaimed news junkie said he could easily spend most of the day inside the museum.
"It's really fascinating if you like news," he said.
Suevon Lee may be reached at 867-4065 or suevon.lee@ starbanner.com.

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